Civic Matters: 'March For Our Lives,' May 8th Elections And 'Border to Border' Trail Open Houses

There are plenty of civic engagement opportunities in our area over the next week. WEMU's David Fair and Mary Morgan of the CivCity Initiative explore some of them and reflect on the weekend's "March For Our Lives" rally in Ann Arbor. That and more in this week's edition of "Civic Matters."

Mary Morgan brings a wealth of experience to the airwaves. While heading up the CivCity Initiative now, Mary was previously co-founder and publisher of the Ann Arbor Chronicle. Prior to that, she served as a reporter and editor for the Ann Arbor News when it was a daily, print-edition newspaper.

Resources for this week's topics:

• In the wake of this past weekend's March for Our Lives, it's worth noting that the Washtenaw Youth Initiative plans to continue its activism. Their local efforts include lobbying for a local gun buy-back program, increased mental health resources and police demilitarization. Check out their website here.

• The midterm elections in November are getting a lot of attention, but we have a local election much sooner – on Tuesday, May 8. And the deadline to register for that election is just two weeks away – on Monday, April 9. Click here to check your registration status. Find out what's on the ballot at AnnArborVotes.org.

• Don't forget about the Get Out The Vote poster contest for Washtenaw County high school students, sponsored by the local League of Women Voters! Click here for details. The deadline to enter is April 26.

• It's a relatively light week for local meetings, but higher ed is active. Both the Washtenaw Community College Board of Trustees and the University of Michigan Board of Regents meet this week – on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively.

• The Washtenaw County Parks & Recreation staff want feedback on the Ypsi area Border-to-Border Trail segment. Two open houses this week – on March 27 and March 29 – will focus on the section from US-23 to Washtenaw-Wayne County border at Rawsonville Road. Click here for details.

• Here's a great resource: the Citizen's Guide to State Government in Michigan. Learn about how laws are made, who's making these decisions and how to contact them – and much more. Click here to view the guide.

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Ann Arbor-area students are preparing for a national, school walkout and protest march in the weeks ahead. Ann Arbor City Council is meeting tonight in both special and regular session and road construction season is about to begin in earnest. Those topics and more are covered in this week's edition of "Civic Matters"

The State of Michigan is in the process of revising its Lead and Copper rule. The decisions made could impact whether we see another situation like the Flint Water Crisis occur in Michigan. What should, and could, happen as the public comment period winds down, is the topic of conversation on this month's edition of WEMU's 1st Friday Focus on the Environment.

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11:14

1st Friday Focus on the Environment: 03/02/2018 WEMU's David Fair is joined by co-host Lisa Wozniak of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters and Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner Evan Pratt to discuss the implications of an updated Lead and Copper rule in Michigan.

Over the next few months, WEMU's environmental feature, 'The Green Room.' will focus exclusively on the 1,4 dioxane plume that is impacting groundwater in the Ann Arbor area. Following last week's initial report looking at how another major city is handling its dioxane issues, we take the next step in exploring whether solutions in Tuscon, Arizona might work here.

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4:32

The Green Room 04/01016: Barbara Lucas explores whether solutions to 1,4 dioxane contamination bing used elsewhere can work to solve the problem in the Ann Arbor area.